Delayed matching-to-sample tests of animal short-term memory have failed to implicate a consolidation-like process. However, studies of human short-term memory and animal conditioning have produced evidence favoring consolidation. In these studies, stimulus duration and information processing during retention intervals were controlled. These variables have yet to be jointly manipulated in a delayed matching experiment. Pilot work suggests that delayed matching may be treated as a case of matching to compound samples. This procedure controls the amount of information processing during the delay through the presence or absence of a second, to-be-matched element in a compound sample. In this research, pigeons matched to successively presented elements of colorform samples; presence of the second element resulted in retroactive interference with retention of the first element. The proposed research will study temporal variables in matching to compound samples. The first experiment determines the effects of first-element duration. The second experiment investigates the role of temporal point of interpolation of the second element within a delay. The third experiment examines the proactive effects of the presence of the first element on matching to second elements of varying durations.